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Earl Honeycutt named first Martha and Spencer Love Term Professor

Earl Honeycutt, a professor of marketing at Elon University since 2002, has been named the first Martha and Spencer Love Term Professor, an honor established by a gift from the Martha and Spencer Love Foundation that was announced during the business school’s 25th anniversary gala in February.

Professor Earl Honeycutt

The Martha and Spencer Love Term Professorship is the fifth for Elon’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. It joins the Frank S. Holt, Jr., Professorship of Business Leadership, the Doherty Professorship for Entrepreneurial Leadership, the Jefferson Pilot Professorship and the Wesley R. Elingburg Professorship.

The Love Term Professorship is for five years and can be renewed.

“I am very thankful to receive this chair and want to use this position to help advance the level of scholarship within the Love School of Business and Elon University,” Honeycutt said. “Scholarship lies at the heart of learning. My goal is to conduct cutting-edge research that allows our students to learn the latest techniques and thoughts. A secondary goal is to pass this knowledge on to practicing managers.”

Honeycutt directs the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center in the business school and received Elon University’s Distinguished Scholar Award in 2008.

“The new endowed chair is a reflection of the growth in the quality of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and its faculty,” said Scott Buechler, interim dean of the business school. “Outgoing dean Mary Gowan worked tirelessly on behalf of the school, and one of the results is this endowed chair. Earl, a prolific scholar, is the perfect founding faculty member for this position.”

Honeycutt was formerly a professor of marketing, chair of the Department of Business Administration, and director of the Ph.D. program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and he was a tenured associate professor of marketing and Cameron Fellow at UNC-Wilmington.

Before entering academia, Honeycutt served as a U.S. Air Force B-52 flight officer and worked as an industrial salesperson for an electronics division of TRW, Inc. He holds the Ph.D. in Business Administration – Marketing from the University of Georgia, an M.B.A. with a management concentration from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in European history from Chapman University, and a Bachelor of Science in history/Asian studies from ASU.

Honeycutt has taught classes in Japan and the Philippines and has led numerous study abroad groups to Asia, Australia, and Europe.

In 2010, he received the Paper of the Year Award from Marketing Education Review. He also received the 2007 United Sales Center Alliance Innovative Sales Educator Award and the Marvin Jolson 2005 Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Practice by the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.

In 2002, he was honored with the National Conference in Sales Management Outstanding Conference Paper. He also was recognized for his research accomplishments at UNC-Wilmington, Old Dominion University and Elon University, and for teaching/mentoring at Old Dominion University.

Honeycutt serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Selling & Major Account Management and Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. He is associate editor of Industrial Marketing Management. He has published more than 185 articles in national and international outlets and has co-authored four textbooks on business-to-business marketing, sales management and cross-cultural selling.

Honeycutt and his wife, Laura, reside in Chapel Hill, N.C., near their son Travis, daughter-in-law Andrea, and their two grandchildren, Cole and Raine. The family spends time together surfing and seeking adventure in Costa Rica and Hawaii as well as enjoying quiet times at their house in Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

The Martha and Spencer Love Foundation made the original $1 million gift in 1985 to endow Elon’s business program. The Elon board of trustees voted to name the program the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business in memory of the foundation’s benefactors, Burlington, N.C., textile magnate Spencer Love and his wife, Martha. At the time, the gift was the largest in the 97-year history of the college.

The foundation also has provided funding for a $12,000 annual award to a rising Elon junior for a significant research project.